VIDEO: Notre Dame grad, space station commander anticipates trip home

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) The Notre Dame grad Indiana native who's commanding the International Space Station said Thursday he's looking forward to a visit back home after he returns from his five months in orbit.

Astronaut KevinFord spoke via video hookup to the Indiana Senate in the Statehouse, where his older brother, David, was a state senator when he died of cancer in 2008.

Ford wore a blue shirt with a large Indiana flag emblem as he floated inside one of the space station's modules for the 20-minute conversation that was shown on a large video board above the Senate's rostrum. He spoke about the scientific work being done on the station during his stay as he took questions from senators and a couple of teenage family friends from his Blackford County hometown of Montpelier.

Ford demonstrated biting a solid bubble of juice that floated in front of him before seventh-grader Kelli Neff asked Ford what he wanted to do first after returning to Earth.

Ford drew laughs when he exclaimed he wanted a shower "because I haven't had a shower in 107 days."

The 52-year-old Ford flew to the space station in October with two Russians aboard a Soyuz that lifted off from Kazakhstan. He's scheduled to be at the station until March.

State Senate leaders invited schools around Indiana watch the conversation with Ford that was streamed over the Senate's website.

Ford said he didn't see himself becoming an astronaut while he was a student at Blackford High School but always wanted to be a pilot. That led him to study aeronautical engineering at the University of Notre Dame and join the Air Force.

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VIDEO: Notre Dame grad, space station commander anticipates trip home